


Phone Calls and Other Milestones

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Gen, Mentor/Protégé, Missing Scene, Post-Canon, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 07:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15189638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “It wasn’t a test!” The words come pouring out of Peter’s mouth entirely too fast, but once they do, he figures he might as well go there. “The whole making me an Avenger thing. It wasn’t a test.”“No. It wasn’t.”Peter, Tony, and Revelations.Takes place immediately followingSpider-Man: Homecoming.





	Phone Calls and Other Milestones

His head is whirling so much _after_ , that for once in his life and in a move uncharactistic of himself and of Gen Zers everywhere, he leaves his phone in his pocket the whole ride back into the City, gazes out the window and into space, processing. So it’s only when he gets back to Queens that he sees the Google Alert and the SnapStories and the hashtag trending on Twitter, only when he sits down on his bed that he watches the video of Mr. Stark getting on his knee in front of Pepper Potts.

Fifty of the same video.

Fifty reporters. At the Avengers Compound in Upstate New York.

He drops his phone in shock, curses and then sighs in relief to find the screen undamaged when he picks it up, and then frantically calls Happy.

“What’s up, kid? You leave something in the car? I’ll swing back arou—”

“It wasn’t a test, was it.” 

There is a pause, and Peter can hear Happy breathing over the line. “You’ll have to talk to Tony.”

“Well, then can you send me his number?!”

“Right, right, you don’t have it. Hang on—I’ll patch you through.”

“What, right _now_?! No, wait, Happy, he just got engag—”

But it’s too late, and before Peter can hang up the phone, Mr. Stark’s voice rings out loud and clear. “Hey, kid. Call to congratulate me?”

“I…uh…yeah, congratulations. I uh…saw the video.”

“Annnnd?”

“There were reporters. At the Compound. Like…fifty of them.”

“Yeah, look kid, I don’t have all day to wait for the penny to drop, so if you’re gonna say something—”

“It wasn’t a test!” The words come pouring out of Peter’s mouth entirely too fast, but once they do, he figures he might as well go there. “The whole making me an Avenger thing. It wasn’t a test.”

“No. It wasn’t.”

Peter sits mouth agape and phone dangling uselessly in his hand, robbed of words at this revelation. Mr. Stark had wanted to make _him_ an _Avenger_! _Him_!

“Why?” Mr. Stark continues. “Regret turning me down?”

“I…no,” he says, aware only as he says it that it’s not a lie. The fact that he had thought that it wasn’t a real offer, that it was a no-stakes situation, had only minimally factored into his answer. His real motive had been a sudden understanding of the value of the fighting for the Little Guy in light of something Liz’s Dad had said— _Those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me…they don’t care about us._ And _after_ , after the building and Coney Island, Peter had thought, _Maybe people like them don’t care about people like us. Maybe they can't. But someone’s gotta._

And in an ironic twist, he realized, it was the same lesson Mr. Stark had been trying to teach him this whole time; fighting the big bad guy wasn’t enough—you had to look after the people on the ground while you were doing it. And maybe the Avengers couldn’t do that, all concerned as they were with aliens and wormholes and nukes and countries falling from the sky. But a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man definitely could. And maybe, one day, he’d be able to be both.

And yet…

“I just…” Peter continues, finally. “You really think I’m Avengers material?”

“You think I just say these things, kid?”

“No, Mr. Stark, I—”

“Shut up, I’m just giving you a hard time. Yeah, I do think you’re Avengers material. When you’re ready.”

There is another silence, until eventually Mr. Stark breaks it. “You still with me?”

“I, uh, yeah, Mr. Stark! And I, uh, maybe I shouldn’t even ask this…You know what, never min—”

“Out with it, kid!”

“Um, you mentioned some…um…mentoring? And I know you were talking about so I’d be able to be an asset to the team or whatever, but I…I’d still really—”

“What you doing Saturday?”

“Sa-Saturday? I—”

“Great, I’ll have Happy come pick you around eight in the morning. We’ll train.”

“Tr-train? With _you_?”

“Well, I’m not going to make _Vision_ your mentor.”

“I…Mr. Stark…”

“And I’ll send you my phone number too. Happy’s still your point guy, but you ought to have your mentor’s phone number, don’t you think?”

“I…Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

“See you Saturday, Spider-Man.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I live for comments! :)


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